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The consumer group EKPOIZO on Thursday urged motorists to refuse to pay
road tolls for roads that were substandard and dangerous, as well as
those forced to pay tolls for small trips in the areas where they lived
or worked. According to EKPOIZO, traffic police had no right to
intervene when drivers refused to pay tolls and the Greek State did not
provide for either a penal nor administrative penalty for those that
refused to pay.

The consumer group, which said that it had joined a movement against
the arbitrary imposition of road tolls, also informed drivers that they
were not obliged to identify themselves to toll post employees except
by giving their vehicle registration number, and if toll post employees
refused to let them pass and pressured them to pay, they had a right to
simply raise the bar and drive through.

According to EKPOIZO, the only redress for the company collecting the
tolls was to go through the courts in order demand payment.

EKPOIZO also pointed out that the increase in road toll fees in the
last two years ranged from 35 percent to 50 percent while hundreds of
thousands of kilometres of the national roads that people were paying
to drive on were actually lethally dangerous.

Further, several highways had failed to provide an alternate routes for
local residents, who were then forced to pay road tolls for each trip
they made during their daily round within their own areas.